Nephi is quoting the Lord in all three of these verses, but he does not give the source. It is both a warning (vv. 15–16) and a plea for the sinners to repent (v. 17). When a people are “fully ripe in iniquity” (v. 16), then comes “the fullness of the wrath of God,” and he “destroyeth the nations of the wicked” (1 Nephi 17:35, 37).